Better Than Imagined
by AndAllThatMishigas
Summary: Abbey Bartlet recounts how she fell in love with her husband.


Author's Note: Shout out to Taylor Swift (again) for Sparks Fly, which inspired this story. I needed something happy and exciting and beautiful and I hope this makes you all smile.

 **Better Than Imagined**

Abbey entered Ellie's bedroom to tuck her into bed. She found her eight-year-old daughter sitting cross-legged in her pajamas on the bed, reading intently. The sight made Abbey smile. "Bedtime, sweet girl."

Ellie's eyes raced across the page to finish the paragraph before she looked up at her mother. "Okay, Mommy." She smiled, revealing two missing teeth.

It took a moment for Ellie to get settled under the covers. Abbey came to sit beside her and gently stroked her curly sandy blonde hair. It fascinated her that all of her daughters were such perfect blends of she and Jed, and yet they were so different. Ellie had Abbey's hair texture but Jed's color. Liz had dark hair like her mother but it was thick and shiny and straight like her father's. Zoey had Abbey's brown hair, but was otherwise almost one hundred percent Jed.

"Mommy?"

Abbey was taken out of her musings by her daughter's voice. "Yes, Eleanor?"

"Why did you marry Daddy?"

With a smile of curiosity on her face, Abbey responded, "Because we were in love and wanted to spend the rest of our lives together and have a family. And I'm glad we did. Because we got you and Liz and Zoey." She kissed her baby's cheeks and didn't stop until Ellie giggled and squirmed away. "Why do you ask?"

"My friend Heather said her parents were getting a divorce because they only got married because of vodka."

Abbey snorted with laughter. "I can see how that wouldn't be the best way to start off a marriage."

"When did you know you wanted to marry Daddy?" Ellie asked curiously.

"Hasn't your daddy told you this story?" Abbey knew how her husband loved to tell the story of how Abbey had been the catalyst for his eventual career in politics, how his entire life had changed when he met her. And she loved to hear him tell it. It made her heart soar just to think about it.

"I want to hear you tell it," Ellie replied simply.

It took Abbey a moment to remember back all those years ago and to try to condense all those magical feelings into terms her child could understand. "So first, I think I should tell you that I don't know what falling in love feels like to other people. But for me, it felt like getting into a bubble bath. Like everything around me was warm and nice and soft and beautiful. I think from the first moment I ever met your daddy, I fell in love with him. It just took me a while to figure that out."

"How come?"

Abbey hesitated, trying to find the right words to explain. "You know how sometimes you get upset and you think something is bothering you but really you're just sleepy or hungry? And then after a snack or a nap, you feel all better? You weren't really upset, you just didn't realize you needed food or sleep."

Ellie nodded in understanding.

"Well it was like that for me, but so much better. We met in a library and he helped me reach a book. But he didn't talk to me like other people did. He wasn't trying to show off or get anything from me. He was just genuinely kind. It was so easy to see that he had only the best intentions."

"So Daddy was just nice? And you fell in love and got married?"

"I wouldn't put it like that exactly. But he was more than just nice. His being nice was…pure." Abbey paused, pleased with that word choice. It was so accurate. From the first moment, Jed had been a pure person. No ulterior motives, no latent desire for anything beyond helping a fellow student. He had treated her with the utmost respect. Not just because he was using manners to impress her, as so many other college boys had done during Abbey's youth. Jed had never treated her as just a _woman_. He treated her like a person.

Ellie tried to be patient, but her mother's face glazed over as she became lost in memory. Ellie reached her hand out to touch Abbey's leg.

Abbey returned to the present. "The first time he smiled, it was like…sparks. Sparks flying all around. Like fireworks. I could have melted into a puddle in the middle of the library. And when he left after helping me, I couldn't stop thinking about him. His smile haunted me all the time, making me think about wanting to see him again, wanting to talk to him, wanting to kiss him."

"Eww!"

Abbey laughed as the eight-year-old fell victim to her childish mentality. "You'll understand when you're older, Ell."

"Did you get married after that?" she asked.

"Two years after that, yes. Because as much as I wanted to kiss him, I couldn't."

Ellie's small brow furrowed. "Why not?"

"Believe it or not, when I met your daddy, he wanted to be a priest. And priests aren't allowed to get married."

"And no kissing?"

"Nope. No kissing. It was hard sometimes to spend time with him and know that we wouldn't ever be more than friends. But being friends was so wonderful, I couldn't even really think about wanting more."

"But you loved him." The complexities of her parents' beginning was not quite computing in her young mind.

Abbey nodded. "When you really, truly love someone, Ellie, you want them to be happy, even if it isn't with you. And if Jed Bartlet wanted to be a priest, I wanted to help him do that."

"But Daddy didn't become a priest."

"That's right. Instead, we got married and we got to have three wonderful little girls."

"How come you got married if Daddy wanted to be a priest?"

"Because he loved the Church. But he loved me more. And as much as he wanted to be a priest, he wanted to marry me and have a family instead."

"And you're still in love?"

Abbey smiled softly, her heard expanding with the renewed memories of the love she and her husband shared. "Ellie, you know how exciting it is when we go to the toy store? How happy you feel when we're on the way and you imagine all the fun toys and which ones you're going to get? And sometimes when you get the toy, it isn't as fun as you thought it would be?"

Ellie's brown eyes went wide as she nodded in understanding.

"Being married to your father is like getting to take the most exciting toy home and still feeling just as excited every single time you play with it. Like you've thought about most wonderful thing in the world, and it's even better than you ever imagined it possibly could be."

A happy grin spread over Ellie's face. That made sense. And even at eight years old, Eleanor Bartlet understood what a wonderful and powerful thing love could be. She vowed from that moment that she would never be with any boy if she didn't see sparks fly or feel all warm inside whenever he was around. Because if Mommy and Daddy could fall in love like that, it must be real. And if Mommy could just be friends with Daddy because she loved him so much, Ellie could wait until the real thing came along.


End file.
